Mark Binker over at WRAL had more on the story over the holiday weekend, including the fact that a much larger and more respectable institution, SunTrust Bank, may be considering doing its own shark impression as well. Let’s hope that SunTrust and others come to their senses and realize that payday lending is bad news for the state’s consumers and bank reputations.

I wonder if you have the intellectual honesty to address the study’s findings in detail. Whenever I bring this and other studies to the attention of payday opponents, they have this curious response of claiming they are “too busy”, or “the study is invalid” without explaining why, or saying “you obviously have your mind made up”. I’ve always regarded these as dodges for obvious reasons. If you have the time to make a blog post, why don’t you have the time to address valid criticisms of your position?

For once — just for once — I’d really like to see an opponent like yourself step up to the plate and defend your position against evidence that pretty much contradicts your entire argument.

Rob Schofield

September 5, 2012 at 8:15 am

And for once, just once, I’d love to see a paid industry flak who posts on our site in defense of payday loans who admits who they are and acknowledges his or her personal financial interest in defending the practice.